Strategic Solutions: Game Theory Perspectives on Climate Change in South Asian Cli-Fi

Abstract

Climate change is a significant concern to South Asia, requiring innovative policy development and public participation approaches. This study explores the application of game theory to analyze climate strategies depicted in two significant South Asian climate fiction (cli-fi) novels: The works of Amitav Ghosh's "The Hungry Tide" and Indra Sinha's "Animal's People." To examine how game theoretic analysis of cli-fi narratives can enable their contribution to climate policy and activism for South Asia. The approach adopted in this study involves the combined textual analysis of the selected novels, game theoretic modelling of climate scenarios described within, and comparative analysis of fictional approaches to climate problem solving with real-world climate policies. The analysis focuses on three key game theoretic concepts: common pool resource problems, negotiation games, and behavioural games. Both novels relegate intricate game theoretic environments for environmental decision-making and climate activism. Both "The Hungry Tide" and "Animal's People" explore the problem of common pool resources (CPR) within the Sundarbans ecosystem and the negotiation dynamics between victims of disaster and corporation’s post-disaster. Both narratives stress the need for local knowledge and community-based tools to deal with climate vulnerabilities. Through a game theoretic analysis, the critical insights from the game theoretic analysis provide essential guidance for formulating climate policy, including the importance of transparency, adaptive management strategies and robust legal frameworks to hold corporations accountable